Axx Goes South

Brad Axx, a brusque, go-to-hell, New York cop, takes a vacation in Florida to get away from it all in this plodding thriller. There, in the quiet town of Gulf Shores, he meets Kristen McCauley, a real estate broker. She dies, shortly thereafter, of what the Florida police call an accidental cocaine overdose--but Axx feels certain she's been murdered. A little bit in love with McCauley, Axx distrusts her boss, Birkett Gamble, and starts looking into some of Gamble's company paperwork. He discovers a scam of immense proportions and, in the manner of a bear dancing the flamenco, goes about proving it to reluctant, overworked authorities. There are a couple of reasonable scenes in Huber's ( Tandem Rush ) latest, including an unusual vehicular finale, and the real estate con is believable and interesting. But superfluous and stifling details slow the fairly simple plot and the dialogue sounds like a particularly poor A-Team episode. (Oct.)